


Born Again

by scullywolf



Series: TXF: Scenes in Between [22]
Category: The X-Files
Genre: Gen, Introspection, Missing Scene
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-08-03
Updated: 2015-08-03
Packaged: 2018-04-12 17:21:42
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 496
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4488144
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/scullywolf/pseuds/scullywolf





	Born Again

_“Scully, you saw what happened in there.”  
“What I saw was some traumatized little girl who for no apparent reason has some connection to Charlie Morris.”  
“All the evidence suggests that Michelle Bishop _ is _Charlie Morris.”_  
_“Mulder…”_  
 _“Short of her growing a mustache, how much more apparent does it have to become for you to accept it?”_  
 _“Okay. Let’s just say that, by some miracle, you manage to convince Michelle’s mother, and the next hypno-regression provides you with everything you could possibly hope for. No grand jury is going to listen to that kind of testimony. We still will not have an actionable case!”_

It was easier, before. Before she had seen all the things she's seen. Before killer bugs and killer worms and hundred year-old liver-eating mutants. Before nasal implants and secret government cloning programs and kids with marks that definitely weren’t mosquito bites.

When she could discount her partner’s bizarre hypotheses without that niggling  _Well, maybe…_  in the back of her mind.

It is still her job to provide checks and balances to Mulder's... enthusiastic pursuit of the paranormal. She is still responsible for playing the role of skeptic, for reining him in when he gets so wrapped up in his theories that he loses perspective. It is a job that is getting harder, but remains no less important.

Some things, at least, are still fairly cut-and-dried. She can see that there is often good cause, on the types of cases that she and Mulder investigate, to depart from convention, to (as she told Skinner not a week ago) keep an open mind. But that does not constitute a license to run roughshod over the justice system.

Or over traumatized little kids.

Usually, Mulder has so much more sensitivity when it comes to their youngest witnesses. It was shocking and more than a little disturbing to watch him get so completely invested in securing his perceived proof of reincarnation that he would treat an eight year-old like some inanimate piece of evidence.

Hopefully she managed to say  _something_  that got through to him this afternoon. He’s probably still mad at her now, but he generally tends to fume for a while and then eventually get around to thinking more seriously about whatever she’s said. He is passionate, but not completely unreasonable.

In the meantime, Skinner has asked for daily updates on their cases, and she has to finish today’s field notes. She stares at the blinking cursor on the borrowed Buffalo field office computer. In light of all of the evidence they’ve seen so far, she has to admit that she cannot come up with any theory sound enough to reasonably refute what her partner believes to be happening in this case. Any alternative scenario she could feasibly posit would be shaky at best. All she can do is write up the facts of the case, tell the truth about what they have discovered and observed, without conjecture or speculation. Stick to the facts.


End file.
